On This Day: February 21

On This Day February 21

Musical Milestones

1970 – Sly & the Family Stone begin the second and final week as chart-toppers with “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”

1976 – Paul Simon begins his third and final week on top of the Billboard Hot 100 With “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” The track, off his Grammy-winning “Still Crazy After All These Years” album, is the only No. 1 Simon has ever achieved as a solo act.

1976 – The Willie Nelson-Waylon Jennings album “Outlaws” becomes the first country music album to go platinum.

1977 – Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is released. The album goes on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide and spends 31 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.

1981 – Dolly Parton rules the singles chart with the title track from the motion picture “9 to 5.” Parton co-stars in the movie with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman.

1987 – “Livin’ on a Prayer,” by Bon Jovi, is in the midst of a four-week run at No. 1 on the singles chart.

1990 – “Let the River Run,” by Carly Simon, wins Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture at the 32nd annual Grammy Awards. The track, which had previously been honored with an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song, is from the movie “Working Girl,” starring Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford.

1998 – Usher wraps up two weeks as a Billboard chart-topper with “Nice & Slow.”

2004 – “Slow Jamz,” by Twista featuring Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, begins a week on top of the Billboard Hot 100.

History Highlights

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated. The monument, built in the shape of an Egyptian obelisk, underwent two phases of construction: one private (1848-1854) and one public (1876-1884). When completed, it was the tallest structure in the world at 555 feet, 5-1/8 inches.

1925 – The New Yorker magazine publishes its first edition.

1948 – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is officially incorporated and goes on to become one of America’s most popular spectator sports as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

1965 – Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City.

1972 – Richard Nixon makes the first presidential visit to the People’s Republic of China in an effort to normalize Sino-American relations. 

1995 – National Aviation Hall of Famer Steve Fossett lands safely in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, completing the first ever solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. Sadly, Fossett is declared dead in 2008 after a plane he was piloting vanished over the Nevada desert in September 2007. He was 63.

Celebrity Birthdays

1946 – Emmy and Tony-winning actress Tyne Daly (“Cagney & Lacey,” “Judging Amy,” “Gypsy”)

1946 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor Alan Rickman (“Die Hard,” “Galaxy Quest,” the “Harry Potter” series, “Something the Lord Made,” “Eye in the Sky”) (d. 2016)

1955 – Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor-producer Kelsey Grammer (“Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Toy Story 2,” “X-Men: Last Stand”)

1963 – Actor William Baldwin (“Flatliners,” “Backdraft,” “Sliver,” “The Squid and the Whale,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”)

1979 – Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt (“Party of Five,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer”)

1987 – Actress Ellen Page (“Juno,” “Whip It,” “Inception”, “X-Men” Series) 

Own a Piece of This Day

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Still Crazy After All These Years

Paul Simon

Rumours

Fleetwood Mac

Washington's Monument And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk

John Steele Gordon

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley

Malcolm X, Alex Haley and Attallah Shabazz

Backdraft

Starring Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro and Scott Glenn, and directed by David Westgor

Juno

Starring Ellen Page, Ellen Page and Michael Cera, and directed by Jason Reitman

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On This Day: February 1

On This Day February 1

Musical Milestones

1958 – Elvis Presley records his last single before joining the U.S. Army: “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck.”

1964 – “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” by The Beatles, tops the Billboard Hot 100 and remains there for seven weeks.

1969 – “Crimson and Clover,” by Tommy James and The Shondells, begins two weeks as the No. 1 single.

1975 – Neil Sedaka reigns over the singles chart with “Laughter in the Rain.” It’s his first No. 1 since “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” in 1962.

1980 – Blondie releases “Call Me” — the theme from the movie “American Gigolo,” starring Richard Gere. The track climbs to No. 1 two months later and holds there for six consecutive weeks. It becomes the top-selling single of 1980.

1992 – Recorded live in concert, the George Michael-Elton John duet, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me,” tops the singles chart. John originally released the song on his 1974 “Caribou” album and it climbed as high as No. 2 that year.

1997 – Toni Braxton continues her domination of the pop chart with “Un-Break My Heart,” in the midst of an 11-week run at No. 1. 

2003 – “Bump, Bump, Bump,” by B2K featuring P. Diddy, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for a week.

History Highlights

1884 – The first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary, considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. 

1893 – Thomas Edison completes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria, on his property in West Orange, New Jersey.

1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad merge to form the ill-fated Penn Central line. 

1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl. 

1982 – “Late Night With David Letterman” premieres on NBC, introducing ‘Stupid Pet Tricks,’ ‘Stupid Human Tricks’ and other frivolity to late-night television. Actor Bill Murray is Dave’s first guest.

2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) disintegrates upon re-entry to Earth, killing all seven crew members. Debris from the ill-fated spaceship falls along a path from Fort Worth, Texas eastward into Louisiana.

2004 – The term “wardrobe malfunction” is born at Houston’s Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) when one of Janet Jackson’s breasts is briefly exposed during her Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show performance with Justin Timberlake.  

Celebrity Birthdays

1901 – Actor Clark Gable, known as the “King of Hollywood” (“It Happened One Night,” “Gone With the Wind,”) (d. 1960)

1902 – Poet Langston Hughes, best known as leader of the so-called “Harlem Renaissance” movement (d. 1967)

1937 – Singer Don Everly of The Everly Brothers (“”Wake Up, Little Susie”)

1948 – Funk musician Rick James (“Super Freak,” “Give It To Me Baby”) (d. 2004)

1965 – Actress Sherilyn Fenn (“21 Jump Street,” “Two Moon Junction,” “Twin Peaks”) 

1968 – Stand-up comedian and actor Pauly Shore (“Encino Man,” “In the Army Now,” “Bio-Dome,” “Son in Law”)

1968 – Singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of rock and roll pioneer Elvis Presley

1971 – Golden Globe-winning actor Michael C. Hall (“Six Feet Under,” “Dexter”) 

1994 – Singer-songwriter Harry Styles, formerly of the popular boy band One Direction

Own a Piece of This Day

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Elvis 2nd To None

Elvis Presley

Crimson and Clover

Tommy James and The Shondells

Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night

by Jason Zinoman

Space Shuttle Columbia: Her Missions and Crews

by Ben Evans

Gone with the Wind

Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard, and directed by Victor Fleming

Twin Peaks: The Complete Series

Starring Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Ontkean, and directed by David Lynch

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